How three friends turned their hobby into a day job
Alison Keating of Charlestown comes to Night Shift Brewing in Everett every Thursday to refill her growler, the 64-ounce reusable jug for beer. She buys whatever brew is newest, at the behest of her fiancé.
“If you think you’re in the wrong place, you’re in the right place,” she said, adding that she was a little sketched out the first time she visited the brewery occupying space in an old warehouse on Charlton Street. But, she said, “the guys here are so awesome.”
But who are those guys? The three men behind Night Shift: Michael Oxton, Rob Burns and Mike O’Mara, who opened the doors to their nanobrewery three years ago.
Oxton and Burns went to Bowdoin College together, where they cultivated a love for craft beer. Soon, they started homebrewing using scrounged together tools like Gatorade coolers along with some newfound professional measuring devices.
A few years later, they joined forces with O’Mara, Burns’ friend from Philadelphia, and worked a “night shift,” brewing beer in their Cambridge apartment after getting home from their day jobs.
After some contemplation of career choice, the trio decided to turn their night shifts into full-time shifts and become official beer brewers.But not just any old brewers: they became the ones who thrive on the unknown, who put their heart and soul and crazy ideas into creating interesting beers that are pleasing to the palette.
They’ve become known for beers that make people say, “huh?” Case in point: their Ever Weisse, a sour beer tinged pink, containing strawberries, kiwi and dried hibiscus flowers.
“It’s so different than most of the stuff that you see, and that’s kind of what we’re going for—something people haven’t tasted before,” Oxton said. “You actually pitch lactic acid into the beer and it makes the beer go funky and weird. It basically infects the beer, in like a delicious way.”
The team at Night Shift brews three to four times each week. Each brew begets about seven barrels and around 200 gallons of beer, which translates to between 600 and 800 gallons per week, or around 5,000 bottles.
Night Shift Brewing, est. 2012
Oh, and each beer gets bottled individually along with its own hand-marked label.
These labels can be found in liquor stores across Boston and Cambridge, and the beer is on tap in some local bars.
The Night Shift guys just expanded their business with three new steel fermenters, which about tripled their production volume. But they’re okay with being so busy, Oxton said.
“All of our money is just going into producing beer and making this place better.”
Video: Night Shift Brewing Co-Founder Michael Oxton on Creativity